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Video: Style from the 1930’s

The style of dress in the 1920s to 1940’s remains timeless, and fascinating. While in Manhattan last summer, during the heat wave, I noticed women in classic 1930’s attire, and believe it or not, men donning hats,( and sun block) a functional addition to their attire. This charming Youtube presentation features some of my music, and the combination works well. The styles in this video will draw the attention of smart clothing designers looking back 80 years to find the stylish fashion statements of tomorrow. – Thomas Schoenberger
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRFdB7jFSY8                                      
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Magnification Magnified – Archimedes and the Burning Mirror

Since my son was 8, he has held a fascination for magnifying glasses, how when properly positioned in a summer day’s sun, can burn leaves and such. I was the same way as a young lad. This next entry is for my son, to demonstrate that , long ago, giant mirrors were used to try and halt an advancing army, or rather navy, and it may just have worked. I give you the article in it’s full version.
Dad (aka Thomas Schoenberger)
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How those TSA Strip Search Machines Could Unlock a Real Life Da Vinci Code

TSA is Removing Those Pesky Strip Scanners – from CNN

This week, the TSA announced it is ending its contract with Rapiscan “due to its inability to deploy non-imaging ATR software.” The Automated Target Recognition (ATR) software has been opposed by privacy groups since their introduction years back. In short, people do not like to be stripped searched naked in public,even virtually, hence these “backscatter” machines were reviled by some, and viewed suspiciously by the rest of us.The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they’re used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.

The need to keep us safe from would be terrorists carrying either plastic or metalic weapons is seemingly outweighed by the need to keep these virtual strip search machines at bay. But what happens to these machines and how can they be utilized in new and surprising ways? The art world would be a strong possibility I think. I strongly suggest that the company L3 consider making arrangements with museums worldwide, with the intent of using these machines in a non invasive manner, on non living things, paintings.http://video.answers.com/row-over-lost-da-vinci-painting-517236409 In Europe alone, researchers have be stunned by how technology is revealing secrets hidden for centuries, paintings that, on the surface seem to be what they say the are, but in fact are hiding a treasure trove of information not seen by the naked eye.

Case in point: the recent discovery of sketches one of Da Vinci’s greatest paintings, a discovery that shocked the Louvre.  Now researchers have also shocked the world by finding yet more symbols, hidden in some of the most important artwork in human history. How easy it would be to use these amazing machines in the archives of the many museums that strive to unlock the mysteries of thousands of paintings thought to contain all manner of secrets. Now that a real life Da Vinci code quest has been called off because of “invasive technique concerns” perhaps the incorporation of these scanners into archival settings will bring forth a wealth of information that these artworks seem to be slowly revealing., mysteries hidden for centuries, unknown knowledge told to canvas by artist, and hidden by pigment only to be revealed countless years later. There is your Da Vinci code, your Caravaggio code, your Bellini code, your skeleton key to history…And perhaps a better use for those Orwellian TSA machines would be in unlocking the countless riddles hidden by those amazing artists of the Italian renaissance. The journey could start here at the famed Uffizi gallery. Log on to www.uffizi.org for a wonderful stroll down history’s corridors.

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Da Vinci and the Mysterious Singing Moon: Listen to an Actual Da Vinci Composition! Must See VlogBlog2013 by Thomas Schoenberger

In keeping with this year’s pledge to reveal to my gentle readers little known facts of towering geniuses ( Da Vinci, Frankin, Mozart, Lincoln, etc), I now want to show you a musical composition by Da Vinci. You did not know Da Vinci was a musician? He was – and a a superb one at that. How much of his music, like his paintings remain lost, hidden. Hopefully, more of it will appear in time.  It is said that Leonardo was easily the most intelligent human being who ever lived. Who knows. He was easily the most famous genius who walked the earth. Here is a sample of a short piece of music he composed around 1500.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BxwsKtRdFs

If the above video clip doesn’t play, please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BxwsKtRdFs.


I also urge readers to listen to my singing moon composition herein one of my albums for infants.  The idea of creating a polyphonic piece of music a la singing moon ( harvest moon) was the conclusion of an experiment, to see if I could merge a number of melodies at once, and reverse the melody onto itself, as Da Vinci achieved in his famous mirror writings.Thomas Schoenberger

 

 

 

 

The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.
Leonardo da Vinci

 

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Mona Lisa into 2013 – Da Vinci Codes and Hidden Symbols: A Look Through History’s 510 year old mystery Through New Eyes

The recent discovery of Leonard Da Vinci’s hidden symbols, painted on canvas, below the surface of the mysterious image of Mona Lisa stunned the research team entrusted to investigate the painting.The markings, discovered through x ray technology to have been painted prior to finishing stokes, has the art world and symbology world atwitter.

In the last three years, researchers intent on revealing the late master’s 500 year old secrets have declared stunning new developments, including, what they claim is the number 72 painted behind Mona Lisa’;s right eye. History would be wise to take notice.

Now we know Da Vinci was born April 15th 1452 ( tax day) and began the Mona Lisa at the age of 51, after a lifetime of study in mathamatics, war engineering technologies, creating far reaching proto types of submarines, heloicopters, etc….This man was so far ahead of his time, he still captivates the world today. I have seen the painting several times, first as a small child in 1967, and then again over the years as I have returned to Paris on business and pleasure. I have watched the tourists scratch their heads.. They KNOW there is a mystery behind her smile. She know somethiing… She has a secret, a very important secret that can chance peoples lives. When she tells this secret to the the rest of the world, if she tells it of course, a lot of people will disagree with her… but, she knows what she knows, no one can chance that..

So as researchers have started their investigation on the eyes, and hit pay dirt, now they must come to terms with, what I think, could be a revolutionary way to look at Da Vinci in his majestic entirety.. in ways Dan Brown may have pointed to…. To give you the story in a nutshell, we start with this http://www.ibtimes.com/mona-lisas-eyes-reveal-da-vincis-real-code-art-historians-250385

Now on to my ponderance. or rather ponderances…..
What if,hidden behind Mona Lisa’s smile, lies a pattern of markings, with a hidden message for a later date? Should we be looking closely at the entire canvas for clues, not just the eyes? We know that what Da Vinci feared most were floods, tidal waves, drowning, water gone wrong. Note the serene water behind Mona Lisa. Could her secret have to do with a amazing insight Da Vinci had about water, and perhaps his answer is hidden behind not just the eyes of the portrait, but behind the entire canvas. Could the peaceful enigma the world knows as “Mona Lisa” actually hide a torrential downpour, a tsunami of water, all dressed up in soft beguiling pigment? Is the most secretive and mysterious smile on earth really a message that, like calm waters turn to rough seas, so too do warm smiles turn into gnashing teeth.Da Vinci, the master of dichotomy, would be capable of such a message. In fact, it would be right up his alley.

His “Riddles”, a corpus of moody and brillantly penatrating drawings sketches and writings, drip deeply with his fear of water. Read his seminal insights on water engineering, and water weaponry in this regard. Floods, consuming floods, controlling water all spelled out in detail…It is as if he is predicting Katrina, Irene, Superstorm Sandy, etc. The man used parhcment sparingly. he could write backwards, and with both hands. He understood water’s fearful symetry long before it became a fashionble term.His eyes saw differently, as Mozart’s ears heard differently, as the rarest among us have the rarest of gifts to stun us centuries later.

Da Vinci actually SAW things differently, that is to say that he took in motion unlike other human beings, He could calculate depth, velocity, color in an instant, would gaze for hours watching birds fly, spent his greatest energies on water…always water..his greatest fear and his greatest problem solving issue….Now for a man bent on hiding his riddles for future generations, it would be just like him to hide his greatest riddles behind his greatest works. Perhaps this is why he kept the painting till he died…..

Now what if he created hidden markings, codes, riddles, behind the entire canvas arena of the Mona Lisa? What if there is a broad constellation of messages embedded in the canvas, delivered in the same manner as he entered crytic knowledge in his codex’s? What if, in many of his late paintings, Da Vinci left clues, clues he wanted kept hidden from the prying eyes of the church, or potential enemies, or feuding ducalities? It stands to reason, considering this genius’s methodology, incredible  acccuracies  and clandestine ways, and in light of his times, Da Vinci had to hide much of what he created.What if researchers have only just begun to unravel the tip of the glacier.Leonardo’s greatest riddles may just be revealed soon.What if Da Vinci had more than one code? ……and what if the codes are hidden in plain sight?. We are on the advent of looking at his art, and the art of the entire renaissance with bold new eyes…….Thomas Schoenberger

 

Thomas Schoenberger

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Modern Couple – Asteria – Performs and WriteS About Late Medieval Music and History

Of special interest is a  couple performing Medieval Music who exude history in everything they do. The music  of  Asteria is some of the finest early music I have heard. Their performances, many held in palaces and castles, is stunning. For a real amazing glimpse into what some musicians are doing, I urge everyone to listen to these fantastic performers and to read their captivating blog.
Thomas Schoenberger
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The Mozart of Burgundy – Guillaume Dufay of the 15th Century

His story is remarkable. He was noticed for his genius before he entered childhood. He traveled and performed, and became the most famous musician in all of Europe ! Upon his final illness, he requested that his mass be sung to him as he knew his life was concluding. We all know this story. We all saw Amadeus.But did you know this is not his story, or rather, his story shares an eerie similarity to another man forgotten to history? You cannot make this stuff up. Another one of histories elusive composers, the incredible life of Dufay……….the Mozart of Burgundy.

 

— Thomas Schoenberger

 

 

 

 

;–

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Superstorm Sandy Did Da Vinci predict it?

 

 “Water gnaws at mountains and fills valleys. If it could, it would reduce the earth to a perfect sphere”

(Codex Atlanticus, 185v).

Thomas Schoenberger

Did Da Vinci warn of great floods to come?
“Water is sometimes sharp and sometimes strong, sometimes acid and sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet and sometimes thick or thin, sometimes it is seen bringing hurt or pestilence, sometime health-giving, sometimes poisonous. It suffers change into as many natures as are the different places through which it passes. And as the mirror changes with the colour of its subject, so it alters with the nature of the place, becoming noisome, laxative, astringent, sulfurous, salty, incarnadined, mournful, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, greasy, fat or slim. Sometimes it starts a conflagration, sometimes it extinguishes one; is warm and is cold, carries away or sets down, hollows out or builds up, tears or establishes, fills or empties, raises itself or burrows down, speeds or is still; is the cause at times of life or death, or increase or privation, nourishes at times and at others does the contrary; at times has a tang, at times is without savor, sometimes submerging the valleys with great floods. In time and with water, everything changes”Leonardo described water as “the vehicle of nature” (“vetturale di natura“), believing water to be to the world what blood is to our bodies…….

 

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Beethoven – Deafness, Change and Genius


As any composer will tell you, we study quiet a bit.   A good composer will never “tune out” but uses the background of social chaos as a protagonist for creation.

By 1800, Beethoven had become aware of his advancing deafness — surely a most horrible fate for a musician and unendurable to a composer. Agonizing over his fate, Beethoven contemplated suicide, but in the end embraced life, determined to go on composing, if no longer performing. Unhappy with his compositions up to that time and stating that he would now be “making a fresh start,” Beethoven began composing music such as had never before been heard. His Symphony no. 3 in E-flat major, subtitled the “Eroica”, was completed in 1804, and was almost twice as long as any symphony written up to that time. Taking the classical symphony as a starting point, it introduces more themes, more contrasts, more instruments, more weight and more drama than previously heard in the symphonic form.

His sixteen string quartets span his creative life and developed from the classical restraint of the six “Early” quartets to the sublime late quartets which contain music of such personal pain and suffering, that one wonders if an audience was intended to hear them at all. The power of Beethoven’s voice can be heard in the String Quartet no. 11 in F minor. Beethoven’s musical ideas, the “themes” he used and from which he painstakingly constructed his works, were revolutionary for his day.
Not many understood his vision.
Critics vilified him, traditionalists accused him of being an “enemy of the muses”.  He was just a deaf profound genius, confronting deafeningly profound times……………  T. Andrew Schoenberger
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Gun Control Debate – Leave the Children Out of the National Debate

As any composer will tell you, we study quiet a bit.   A good composer will never “tune out” but uses the background of social chaos as a protagonist for creation.

In the 80’s , I composed things a young man would compose.   More interested in stormy, defiant pieces, my psychiatrist father would laugh and say “Great piece son, are you angry at me?”

Now as an older, and hopefully wiser man, I try and write pieces that reflect the era we are living in — these modern times of confusion.

Much has been said about the recent issue of gun control. We are all , yes all, horrified by the violence perpetuated at the work place, the movie theatre, and now our schools. Nobody sane would not question or attempt to find out why such horror seems to grow, encroaching into the most scared areas of our lives. We have had it good for a long time. So good, that we still use words like recession to describe a depression, and conspiracy theorist to confront someone who’s belief systems do not match ours. I stay out of the gun control debate because I have friends on both sides of the issue. I believe that our heroes have fallen, from Armstrong, to Schwarzenegger  to Travolta and Saville and so on and so forth.

And I believe many do not believe that Gov, NRA, or the man from Mars is going to save them. The underlying issue here is trust. Not many gun advocates I know believe that a deranged shooter will be targeting them. They are responsible people and they resent being lumped into the same category as the shooters in these tragedies. They are suspicious of anyone wanting to claim their instruments of protections, and perhaps they should be.On the other hand, where is the need to have such banal and aggressive death weapons like assault weapons ? Should we arm every citizen with A Bombs or should we take away all guns, knives, forks, spoons, and baseball bats?

 

I know where I stand. I plan to write more music, the greatest weapon I can use in my crusade to foster peace and understanding in today’s stressed out generation.I do not believe we are in a mere recession, but something far worse., I do not believe we can make 300 million guns in America disappear  But I do believe that we have to do whatever we can to leave children out of the national debate, even as they have been innocent victims of the outrage. And we must seek answers to the riddles of modern life by finding precedent in bygone eras.

T. Andrew Schoenberger

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Water, Da Vinci, Lake Maggiore and Composing Music

 In one of his many writings on water, its properties and characteristics, Da Vinci observed:

 The waters circulate with constant motion from the utmost depths of the sea     to the highest summits of the mountains, not obeying the nature of heavy  matter; and in this case it acts as does the blood of animals which is always moving from the sea of the heart and flows to the top of their heads; and here it is that veins burst–as one may see when a vein bursts in the nose, that all the blood from below rises to the level of the burst vein. When the water rushes out of a burst vein in the earth it obeys the nature of other things  heavier than the air, whence it always seeks the lowest places.  These waters traverse the body of the earth with infinite ramifications.

For this otherworldly polymath, who understood well the elemental nature of water, this construct still holds true, five centuries after he wrote it.

In some of my music, I have incorporated the sound of old cathedral bells, having listened to them many times during my travels to Florence and Milan. Of special interest has been the northern Italian lake region, Lago Maggiore and Lake Como, the mystical region that has inspired much of my composing.

Always while in Italy, I speak to people about the flood of 1966, since having personally experienced flooding in Florence, I cannot even begin to describe the sheer viscera of watching mud heaving forth, and the river turning dark, choppy, furious.. In many of my winter sojourns, I have grabbed my travelling companion, ran in the rain to an Osteria, steeled myself with a Macchiato, and ran back to my abode to compose more music, using the crescendo of the furious raindrops as my meter.

But back to Da Vinci and his observations. Da Vinci would have much to say if he were alive today. I believe he would have ideas about Super Storm Sandy, the droughts, the Tsunami, the Hurricanes and blizzards. He would , above most ancient genius’s , be a constructive voice in civil engineering, promoting reasonable protective barriers to protect our worlds populations from the ravages of “climate change”.  I further believe he would be experimenting with vibration, as an audio barrier, to contain an encroaching sea. The music I have written in this region of the world,is amber liquid in nature, limpid engorged pieces molding into torrents of tonal passages that, like a bursting of veins, descend upon the listener like a deluge from the seas.

Music must break it’s banks sometimes, like rivers misbehaving, like rain upon a windowpane, and then must be like a giant ocean, silent in it’s profound depth.

Thomas Schoenberger

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PianoWorks Music Composed by Thomas Schoenberger

This is a collection of mostly new compositions. dedicated to the memory of Dr T. Schoenberger — doctor, master gardener, veteran and father. The compositions were inspired by hearing my good friend Professor Robert Levin tackle the most difficult Mozart pieces with grace and ease.

[bandcamp album=3963152816 bgcol=272E30 linkcol=4285BB size=venti]

Thomas Schoenberger

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Jacob Orbrecht, The Black Plaque and Avian Flu

I have always enjoyed listening to the mostly forgotten music of composer Jacob Orbrecht.I admit finding out about the composer quite by accident. He came from a small town in the Netherlands that attracted my curiosity for other reasons.
But his music stands out, ethereal, and somehow almost shamanistic, especially the music he wrote for the dead, i.e. masses. The town, in the 14th century,was bustling with trade and indutry. Then plague hit and strangely, nothing prior to the 15th century seems to be extant, even though we know that the town was a well known trade hub in the prior century.
What about the dress of the plague doctors – I believe that may be a clue. My belief is that the historians were wrong about much of the “Black Death” I have watched the usual “History channel” promotions and even though I know epidemiologists and they tell me my hunches are wrong, I believe at some later date, scientists will start to seek avian evidence from the 14th century ( detritus in their ancient nesting places) and be quite surprised to find that , with all the supposition they have given to their Black Death theories, there seems to be a profound lack of contemporary accounts of dead mice.
Sure we know that 1/3 of Europe died in the Great Plague of 1347-1352. For such a terrifying event , filled with stress beyond belief, why would so many so called Plague Doctors dress in odd Bird like masks? We are led to believe the rats were the cause,or rather, the fleas from the rats that came with the ships into the old Italian port cities of Genoa Milan., so forth. Go to any port town today and witness the birds that flock around the ships. Why have no scientists sought out examining the bones of birds that can be dated to this period? Perhaps it could be something to consider.
But I digress. The Plague Doctor (Italian: medico della peste, Dutch: pestmeester, German: Pestarzt) was a true spectacle.Donning the 14th century version of the HazMat suit, these “doctors” were usually hired hands, meant to scope out the truly horrifying outbreak areas, hired by the powers that be to report and quarantine the areas the city fathers feared to inspect personally. 

Just as we have seen in modern days,as “clean up crews” contain nuclear accidents, (only to later die of radiation posioning), these Plague doctors had a high incidence of death. Might the city fathers have purposely designed the avian head garb, knowing full well the Plague was associated with birds, not rats? Might the heavy cloaks these fellows wore have been actual carriers of an avian flu tha is lost to history today? Should attention be cast on old pigoen nesting sites nestled in Gothic era cathedrals , not human graves? Surely Thomas, its a long shot, my scientist friends say.

I quietly counter that nobody has demonstrated one rodent skeleton from the time to prove their theories of Bubonic Plague I was force fed all my life. The 14th century human skeletal remains found in European mass grave sites still remain our greatest hope to coming up with root casual agents for the wholesale die off, they say. But still. we need to look to the birds as a possible prime suspect I counter.

 

We may look closely at the eves and archers mounts of the 14th C buildings and seek our answers in where pigeon and sea birds made their nests over the last 6 centuries. The cathedrals and palaces remain a potential treasure site where perhaps, such evidence may lie. . The town where Orbrecht was born is a point of study for me. I have been there a number of times, investigating our feathered friends of the sky, seeking answers outside of the Universities and labs, studying the old market squares, including this Netherlander city. where pigeons still gather in the ancient city center. The well known 14th century die off sites in Europe include Avingon, Genoa, Venice Paris, London. etc. In the case of Orbrecht, his hometown( Ghent) was a die off site in the preceding century before he was born. It is written in the city records of the time.

Happening upon such a ethereal composer as I seek other knowledge is a side benefit that comes with the thrill of discovery. He probably did not know much about what had happened to his forefathers, just like most people do not know much of what lies beneath their very feet, or for that matter, what their forefathers did in the preceding century. When I tell people that San Francisco had a plague before and during the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, they are startled. Its true and the information is readily available. When I tell them that history is full of mysterious plagues followed by cleansing fires, they ask for evidence. Its all there. London 1664-1666, SF 1900-!907,. etc etc etc. Rinse and repeat. — T. Andrew Schoenberger

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How About Self-Improvement in the Form of a Club? Another Great Idea from Ben Franklin

Would we benefit from a spectaular model in history?
A model that brought forth enlightenment, understanding and creative energies?
I think the answer is to be found in the year 1727. The year the Junto was born.
The WHAT you say?
THE “JUNTO”
Check it out on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junto_(club)
Franklin organized a group of friends to provide a structured form of mutual improvement. The group, initially composed of twelve members, called itself the Junto (the word is a mistaken use of the masculine singular Spanish adjective “joined”, mistaken for the feminine singular noun “junta”, “a meeting”. Both derive from Latin “iunct-“, past participle of “iungere”, “to join”). The members of the Junto were drawn from diverse occupations and backgrounds, but they all shared a spirit of inquiry and a desire to improve themselves, their community, and to help others. Among the original members were printers,surveyors, a cabinetmaker, a clerk, and a bartender. Although most of the members were older than Franklin, he was clearly their leader.
What about starting a Junto in your neighborhood? There are plenty of great modern-day examples patterned on Ben’s example.

P’unk Avenue hosts a monthly Junto in their studio in Philadelphia, where the Junto originated.[3] Since January 2006, the Silicon Valley Junto has met in Palo Alto and San Francisco to discuss topics such as happiness, love, storytelling, and Americanism.[4] Two graduates of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, run the Montreal Junto, devoted to professional networking and public service. They meet on the last Wednesday of each month.[5]

The University of Pennsylvania Chapter of the Junto Society is also in operation. As founder of both institutions, Ben Franklin remains an important motif for both the Penn Junto Society and the University in general. The Penn chapter has strong roots in Philadelphia’s history, but was revived last year by an elite group of members graduating with the Class of 2011. The society exists primarily for intellectual discourse, socialization and networking purposes. As members disperse to the four corners of the globe, they hope to expand the society’s scope and activities worldwide.

The Hong Kong Junto was established in 2009 comprising a diverse group of the business community including lawyers, bankers, investors, authors and entrepreneurs. The Hong Kong Junto meets the second Thursday of every month, usually in Central, with one of its members chairing the evening during which one of Franklin’s original questions is asked and answered by all present, along with one other question that is the discretion of the member hosting. In 2012 the Hong Kong Junto started to become involved in promoting and supporting selected social enterprises in Hong Kong.

 

T

Thomas Schoenberger
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Healing Power of Music

We wake up to and endless parade of violence , riots, strife, and mayhem and most of us simply want a safer world for our kids.

In my studies regarding comfort and music, healing and music and the salubrious effects of music on trama victims, I can only use one word to describe what I observe.

Alchemy.

We have come light years in advancing music and healing. In the next ten years, I firmly believe music therapy will become a customary course of medicine. In keeping with this thought, I offer an excerpt from an article that caught my attention several years ago. To me, the message is only getting more relevant as the world gets crazier.Music should make sense,. Music should heal. Music should inspire. Music has a mandate.Musicians have a social responsibility and the ones I know and love live up to the highest ideals in humanity. With this lofty ideal in mind, here is a quote that I wanted to share with you from this article:

The hope of music’s curative powers has spawned a community in the United States of some 5,000 registered music therapists, who have done post-college study in psychology and music to gain certification. Active primarily in hospitals, nursing homes, special needs classrooms and rehabilitation units, music therapists aim to soothe, stimulate and support the development or recovery of abilities lost to illness or injury.

While music therapists use a mix of improvisation and proven techniques to help patients, neuroscientists are looking to uncover the scientific basis for music’s healing powers. They are trying to understand how music can help rewire a brain affected by illness or injury, or provide a work-around for injured or underperforming brain regions.
By doing so, they hope to better identify which patients might respond best to music and what musical techniques might best help them to regain lost or compromised function.
“Music might provide an alternative entry point” to the brain, because it can unlock so many different doors into an injured or ill brain, said Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, a Harvard University neurologist. Pitch, harmony, melody, rhythm and emotion — all components of music — engage different regions of the brain. And many of those same regions are also important in speech, movement and social interaction. If a disease or trauma has disabled a brain region needed for such functions, music can sometimes get in through a back door and coax them out by another route, Schlaug says.
 The above referenced data constitutes important new developments in exploring why Music developed. Was it a repetition of a mother’s heart, or perhaps percussiive instrumenst meant to scare off perdatory beasts?  My gut tells me that music is not of human origin. It exists in the animal world and pre dates ,,,, us.
The need for music becomes greater in times of dischord, excuse the pun. With so much hatred, polarizing idiocy and bigotry thriving globally, it’s the music makers and the painters and artists who bring comfort and hope and yes, reflect the human heart. I look very closely at the amazing musicality of autistic children. I have known special needs children who have shown truly savant level understanding of music. I still to this day cannot fathom the mystery, but it’s real
I count myself lucky to have known great musicians and composers. The artists I know all strive for peace, all want a return to normalcy and a return of artistic merit. We are dreamers and romancers and shamen and interpeters.Music , by all rights, must transend human experience, even as it startles and stirs souls. Music is perhaps the holiest thing on Planet Earth. Imagine for a minute, a world devoid of music. Even Hell is suppose to have music. The absence of music is the absence of life, hope, dreams and ambitions.
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Are Da Vinci’s Paintings Constructed as We are Constructed — La Scapigliata – Flesh Over Blood and Bone?

We must see how Leonardo teases us, and leaves us clues, in his shapes and colors and geometry and shadows, in his codexes and scribbles, in all that he created….defined so well by the enegmatic smile of the Mona Lisa herself…… Let me introduce a mystery, found only in 1627, years after Da Vinci died, and dating from Leonardo’s later period.  Wiki tells us the following history, with many a page as to provenance and such.

La Scapigliata, which traslates into “the woman of disheveled hair” was discovered in 1627.

The Head of a Woman (also known as La Scapigliata) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, dating from perhaps around 1500 and housed in the Galleria Nazionale of Parma, Italy.  The work is an unfinished painting, mentioned for the first time in the House of Gonzaga collection in 1627. It is perhaps the same work that Ippolito Calandra, in 1531, suggested to hang in the bedroom of Margaret Paleologa, wife of Federico II Gonzaga. In 1501, the marquesses wrote to Pietro Novellara asking if Leonardo could paint a Madonna for her private studiolo.

The painting, part of the Parmesan collection since 1839, has been dated to Leonardo’s mature period, near to the Virgin of the Rocks or The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist. — Wikipedia

But merely turn the image sideways and you can see what a magician Leonardo truly is. At the neck of the image, a calm, serene, and perfectly coiffed figure appears ethereally..as if in contrast to the disorder of the main figure…..It’s very faint and hard to see, but to me, it’s there, and fits perfectly with the dichotomy Leonardo so enjoyed. This is also the period of his masterpieces Virgin of the Rocks, and of course John the Baptist.

I wonder if the faint second face has escaped the eye of the art historians in Italy, and for that matter abroad. I see nothing in the historical record to make me think anyone knows anything about this.If we are to view Leonardo’s art as we do his codexes and studies, then it makes sense that a man who would be driven to perform autopsies so he could understand muscle and flesh and sinew, and then portray his fellow man in such divine colors and beauty,would also hide messages underneath his work, as flesh hides blood and muscle and sinew…..If a man who viewed water as the “lifeblood” of cities, and used flowing ringlets of hair to depict water is telling us something, perhaps we should listen,.Look at Da Vinci’s paintings in a new light….and things leap out at you that remained motionless for centuries……Da Vinci codes?

Thomas Schoenberger

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